Bernie Sanders and Rigged Elections: Sometimes You Just Lose

[passiveporcupine]

48. News used to have standards

despite what people might have wanted. Now it's all based on ratings, so ti completely depends on "what the audience will watch". But it's a two-edged sword. The worse journalism and programming got, the more people got used to it and now they just expect it.

At one time, news anchors, assisted by newswriters and producers, went into the field, got the news, wrote it, edited it, and then broadcast it. They sat in anchor chairs because they were excellent journalists. But broadcast journalism—and those two words should seldom be put next to each other in the same sentence—with a few network and regional exemptions devolved into yet another mess of Reality TV.

Dan Rather—who for more than a half-century has been everything a news journalist should be—explains what has contributed to the decline not just TV news but all journalism as well: “Media consolidation, the corporate news environment, ‘message discipline,’ media cowardice, news-for-profit, celebrity fluff, ‘so-called human interest stories,’ sensational trials, gossip, ‘news you can use,’ [and] partisan shouting matches.”

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/7/21/1112295/-The-Fluff-Factor-Today-s-Journalism

We need to fix this. Again, big money and conglomerates have allowed this to happen.

We can't change this until we get someone in the white house with the courage to tackle big money.